Wing or similar member for airplanes



Feb. s, 1927.-

v. E. CLARK \"`WING OR SIMILAR MEMBER FOR AIRPLANES Filed Sept. 29, 19223 Sheets-Sheen Feb. 8, 1927. 1,616,682

V. E. CLARK WING 0R SIMILAR MEMBER FoR AIRPLANES Filed sept. 29, 1922 5sheets-sheetz Pos/*nou aF 'e7-ap 4/ Pos/WON o? sro/ 4/ WHEN A/ass :MA/e/s 7M WHEN Nosf- VA/VE- /S OUT MAX. F06/ TOA,

Wings S- rlventnr Feb.

Filed Sept. 29, 1922 A. LII-11E Patented Feb. 8, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT IoFFlcE.

'VIRGINIUS E. CLARK, 0F DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR O DAYTON-WRIGHT COMFANY,

DELAWARE.

' WING ORiSIMILAR MEMBER`FOR IRPLANES.

Application fue@ september as, 1922. serial No. 591,373.

This invention relates to aerofoils es ecially such as areused inaircraft, and as as a general object to provide means for varying thelift of an aerofoil by a moyable auxiliary vane positioned in closeproxlmity to the entering 'edge cithe aerofoil. 'A more specific objectis to provide means for operating the auxiliary nose vane slmultaneouslywith the operation of a rear wing flap or aileron whereby the lift ofthe aerofoil is greatly increased when the rear wing Hap is pulled down.y Q

Another objectl is to give a quickeralleron action for controlling,airplanes and to greatly decrease the tendency to spin, especially whenthe airplane is flying `with the wings at a large angle of attack.Ordinarily,

when flying at a large angle of'attack if an aileron is pulled downbeyond a slight angle there is danger of the lift curvegoing beyond theburble point and hence giving a decreased lift on that side of themachine instead of an increased lift which is desired in such cases. Bymeans'of this invention an auxiliary nose vane is extended when 'theaileron is pulled down, the effect of the extension of the nose vanebeing to permit the angle of attack of the wing to be greatly in creased.without passing the burble point 3 or maximum lift of the wing. Ofcourse this feature of the invention also prevents or decreases thetendency to spin. Whenan airplane becomes laterally unbalanced for anyreason and one wing begins to fall, the downward motion of that wingcauses the air to strike itat an increased angle of attack. lf suchangle of attack exceeds the angle for maximum lift the wing willcontinue to fall and consequently'the airplane will spin..

It an attempt is made to raise the falling wing by pulling down theaileron on that side. the effective angle of attack is increased by suchattempt and hence'the lift on that side will be still further decreased.If. however the wing has auxiliary nose vanes according to thisinvention, the pulling down of the aileron will extend the nose vane andgive the wing a high lift instead of a decreased lift, due to thecharacteristic late burble point on aerofoils having such nose vanes.

Another feature of this invention is the v means for extending the nosevanes on' both sides of the airplane at once but only on the 5' outerportions of the wings. When an airplane equip ed with -such extendednose vanes on bot sidesis dying at a large ani over the outer portion ofthe wing which will have a large moment to again right the plane. Thusit is4 seen that this construetion will greatly increase lateralstability without the aid of ailerons although, as explained above, thisinvention also renders'the ailerons much more effective.

Other objects of the invention relating to means for operating .theauxiliary nose vanes and the various adjustments of such means willappear hereinafter from the following more detailed description,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein preferredforms of embodiment of the present invention are clearly shown.

Fig. .1 is a diagrammatic plan view of an airplane equipped with 'thisinvention, with both the auxiliary nose vanes extended.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-'2 of Fig.'1, but with the nose vaneretracted against the nose of, the wing.

3 is' an enlarged view of the interconnecting operatlng means for thenose vanesl and ailerons.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view of another form of the invention, thenoseA vanebeing shown extended and the aileron pulled down to its lowestposition. v

Fig. 5 is a section on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 but with the nose vane retracted andwith the aileron ,erated in various ways, but I have shown them in Fig.1 to be operated byl the rig-id link 16 which has a universal pivot toone arm of the three-armed lever 17. Another armof lever 17 is connectedby the exible cable 18A to the upstanding arm 21 on the torque tube 20,which in turn.is operated'in the usual manner by the operators stick 22.The operating linkage for aileron 14 is similar to that for aileron 13as shown, andthe third arms of the levers 17 and 17 are interconnectedby the flexible cable 19 as shown. Thus it is obvious that when' the oerators control stick 22 is moved to the right cable 18 will be drawn tothe right to rotate lever 17 in the direction of the arrows and causeaileron 13 to be pulled down. Cab1e'18 will be loosened by the movementof control stick 22 and the cable 19 will rotate the lever 17 inthetdirection of the arrows shown to cause aileron 14 to be moved u Ofcourse the reverse movement of the stick 22 will cause the two aileronsto move in the reverse directions to that described.

The wings 11 and 12 are also provided with the movable auxiliary vanes25 and 26 located at the entering edge and arranged so they can eitherbe drawn up snugly against the entering edge when they will havepractically no effect on the aerodynamic properties of the wing, or beextended as shown by the dotted lines 25v in Fig. 2 where they greatlyincrease the lift on that portion of the wing, especial-ly when the wingis flying at the larger angles of attack. In other words, theseauxiliary nose vanes permit the wing to be flown at large angles ofattack without going beyond the burble point of the lift curve, that is,they give a characteristic late burble point. These nose vanes 25 and 26may be moved outward or retracted by any suitable operating means butthe particular means shown in Figs. 1 and 2 will now be described inmore detail.

The vanes are connected to the wings by a plurality of parallel links 27which are pivoted at 28 to the front spar and at 29 to the vane by meansof a small bracket carrying the pivot pin. When the links 27- extendstraight out in the direction of line of flight the vanes are extendedand when they swing towards'the fuselage the vanes (see Fig. 1) movewith a parallel motion snugly up against the entering edge to thepositions shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and as'shown in full in Fig.2. A flexible cable 35 is attached to the outermost link 27 atthe point31 and passes rst around the guide pulley 32 located toward the wingtip, then around pulley 33 located so that the cable 35 willpassparallel and close to the aileron cable 18, then around anotherguide pulley 34, to the winding drum 36. The cable 35 .for the rightwing is similarly arranged, both cables being arranged to be wound up orunwound together when the winding drum 36 isrotated. No means foroperating this drum 36 has been illustrated, but it will be readilyunderstood that nose vanes when cables 35 are unwound from drum 36,however if desired positive means for reti-acting the nose vanes `mayalso be provided. Y I

In addition to the drum 36 I hai'e provided indepedent means forextending the nose vanes one at a time and simultaneously with thepulling down of the aileron on that side, the opposite nose 4vane beingunaii'ected. This is accomplished by means of the stop 40 securelyfastened to the aileron control cable 18 and through which the nose vanecontrol cable 35 asses, (see Fig'. 3) and the stop 41 securely fastenedto cable Preferably, the stops 40 and 41 are so relatively located alongthe cables 18 and 35 that when the nose vanes are. in fully retractedposition and the ailerons in neutral position the stop 41 does not abutstop 40 by an amount which permits the ailerons to be moved throughsmall angles without engaging the'stops 40 and .41. If, however, eitheraileron 1s pulled down to such an angle that 'there is danger ofreaching the burble point for that portion of the wing, the stop 40 willengage the 'stop 41 and move the nose vane outwardly to give a high lifton 'that portio'n of the wing as hereinbefore described. An importantfeature is that the nose vane is moved outwardly an amount according tothe `distance the aileron is pulled down, thus opening up a bigger slotat the enteringedge when the aileron is pulled far down, whichhas beenfound. to be advantageous. Preferably, the stops 40 and 41 are madeadjustable along the control cables by any suitable means such asgripping means operated by the set screws 42 and 43 (see Fig. 3).. Thusthel relative position of the stops 40 and 41 may be changed, ifdesired, to cause the nose vane to begin moving outward immediately uponpulling the aileron below its neutral position or at any other desiredtime. When the nose vanes are being operated by the aileron cables itispreferable to have a spring supported guide pulley similar to a belttightener-pulley to take up the slack in the nose vane cable betweenstop 41 and the winding rum 36. but such tightener pulley has not beenshown in Fig. 1 for the sake of clearness.

It is obvious that with the'. construction above described, it ispossible to extend the nose vanes on .both wings by winding up the drum36 in the direction of the arrow without interfering in any way with theordinary operation of the ailerons 13 and 14. The extension of 'thesenose vanes great- 'the ailerons lmore ve'ective when as hereinbeforedescribed, as Well as rendershesame are used. An advantage in having thenose varies extend over only' the outer portions ot the wing instead ofover itsentire length is to greatly reduce complication, welfht, airresistance, etc., and yet at the same time to obtain almost as muchstabilizing effect as if the vanes did extend the entire Wing length.

l When it is desired to extend the nose-vane only when the-corresponding aileron is pulled down, both nose vanes are retractedagainst the wing by the drum 36, and the operation of the ailerons bythe stick 22 1n the ordinary manner will automatically opcrate thecorresponding nose Vane as described above. g

-In the modification shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, the nose vane 50 isoperated in a somewhat different manner. Rigidly sccured to the vane 50at its center is'the operating rod 51. This rod 51 extends throughsuitable guide bearings 1n the nose brace member 52 and front wing spar53, and bcyond the spar 53 itself serves as a guide for the slidingmember 54 to which the aileron operating link 55 .is pivoted at 56. The

aileron operating cable 59 for pulling the aileron down is attached tothe member 54,

preferably close to the pin 56, and passes forwardly around Guide pulley57, wh-ile the cable 60 for piilling the aileron up is attached at thesame point and passes rearwardly around guide pulley 58. The controlcables 59 yand 60 may be operated by an operators control stick in .themanner illustrated in Fig. 1, or by any other Well known means, and isconsidered unnecessary herein to illustrate and describe in det-ail suchmeans. When cable 59 is pulled in the -direction shown by the arrow inFig. 4,

member 54 will slide upon its guiderod 51 until it abuts the stop 61secured to rod 51.

Any further movement of member 54 will,

then cause the entire rod 51 .to move forward and carry with it the nosevane'50 rigidly .secured thereto. The nose vane 50 is provided withadditional guide rods 62 which are rigidly supported in any suitablemanner on the wing and project forwardly through the vane 50 in suitableslots provided there'n. In its extendedposition the nose vane 50 ispractically at the end of the guide rods 62, but in its retractedposition the rods 62 project a few inches beyond (see Figs. 5 and 6).-The stop 61 is preferably adjustable lto any desired position along rod51 so that if desired the aileron may be pulled down asmall anglewithout extendmg the nose vane 50, but when it is pulled down to a largeangle as shown in =full lines Y in Fig. 5, the nose vane will beextended the wing surface. When the aileron is.

pulled up by tension on cable 60, member 54v will slide rearwardly alongrod 51 as" will be obvious from Athe drawings.

In this modification also I have shown means for extendingthe nose vanoson both sides simultaneously and independently 4of the operation'of theailerons. A toggle lever system is shown comprising the lever pivoted torod 51 at point 7) and lever 7l pivoted to the. front spar at 72, thclevers 7 0 and 71 be'ng pi-voted together at point a.

-a swings to position a and pivot b moves to position b, as shown 4inFig. 6 and in dotted lines in Fig. 4, the vane 50 will be in retractedposition. The toggle s operated by a cable 7 3 which is attached to aprojecting quadrant 74 on the lever 71. I have shown the quadrant 74containing a groove inits periphery for the cablef73 and the quadrant soshaped that the` leverage of cable 73 is greatest at the initialmovementof straightening out the toggle, and gradually reduces until the nosevane 50 is completely exten-ded. The position of quadrant 74 when thevane 50 is completely retracted is shown in dotted' lines at 74 andcable73 at 73 in Fig. 4. The cables 7.3 on both the lright and left wings areretracted at the same time by being wound up on the Winding drum 75. Thedrum 75 is cranked by the operator in any suitable manner,.such as by ahand crank and provided with ratchet means to hold in any desfredposition. The wind pressure may be relied upon to press the nose vane 50inwardly when the drum 7 5 is unwound duc to toggle levers 'a and 72being at a slight angle when the nose vane is extended, butv it' desiredpositive are extended only when the corresponding aileron is pulleddown.

In any of the modifications shown, if thc force necessary to pull theaileron down and simultaneously extend the nose vane is excessivelylarge the ailerons may be balanced in the Well known manner to anydesired When the toggle levers 70 and 71 are j lill) extent in order tosuitably reduce the forcev on the controls.

lVhile vthe forms of mechanism herein shown and described constitutespreferred forms of embodiment of the invention, it is to be understoodthat other forms might be. adopted, all cining within the scope of theclaims which follow.

' What I claim is as follows:

1. In an airplane having a main wing, a wing flap pivoted thereto at itstrailing edge` a movable nose vane postione-d in close re-V lation tothe entering edge, and common means to lower the wing flap and extendthe nose vane.

:2. In an airplane*having a main wine, -a wing tiap pivoted thereto atits trailing e ge, a movable nose vane positioned in close relation tothe entering edge, and common means to lower the wing flap and extendthe nose vane, the amount ot extenson of the nose vanevarying with thedegree of lower ing of t-he Hap.

.3. In an airplane having a main wing, a wing flap pivoted thereto atits trailing edge, a movable nose vane positioned in close relation tothe entering edge, means to lower the flap 'small angles independentlyof the nose vane, and means to extend the nose vane simultaneously withthe lowering of the flap to large angles.

4. In an airplane having a supporting wing and an aileron, a movablenose vane located in the proximity of the. entering edge of said wing`means to vary the angle of incidence of said aileron relatively smallangles independently of the nose vane, and means to extend the nose vanesimultaneously with the varying of the angle of incidence of the aileronthrough large angles.

5. In an airplane having a main Wing, a wing flap pivotcd thereto at itstrailing edge, a movable nose vane positioned in close relation to theentering edge, and means to lower the wing flap and extend the nose vanesimultaneously, and additional means to extend the nose vaneindependently ot' the operation of the wing flaps.

G. In an airplane having a supporting wing and an aileron, a movablenose vane located in theproximity of the entering edge ot' said wing,means to vary the angle of incidence o'l said aileron relatively smallan- `:marisa gles independently'of the nose vane, and means to extendthe nose vane simultaneously with the varying of the angl of incidenceof the aileron through large angles, and additional means to extend theynose vane independently ot' the operation of the aileron. y

7. In an airplane having right andleft supporting wings, movable nosevanes located in the proximit of the entering edges of 'said right andle t wings, and means to extend the nose vane on the right wing Withoutmovingthe nose vane on the left Wing, and Vice versa, and additionalmeans to extend the nose vanes'on both right and left sidessimultaneously when desired.

S. In an airplane having right and left supporting wings, each winghaving a wing flap at the trailing edge and a nose vvane located in theproximity of the entering edge, and common means for extending thelnosevane and lowering the wing flap together on only one side at a time.

9. In an airplane having right and left supporting wings, each winghaving a Wing flap at the trailing edge and a nose vane located in theproximity ot' the entering edge, and common means for extending the nosevane and lowering the Wing flap together on only one side at a time, thedegree of extension of the nose lvane varying with the degree oflowering ofthe flap.

l0. In an airplane having right and left supporting wings, each winghaving a Wing flap at the trailing edge, and a nose vane located in theproximity of the entering edge, and means for independently operatingthe flaps through small angles and means to extend the correspondingnose vane simultaneously with the lowering of either flap to a. largeangle.

11. In an airplane having right and left supporting wings, each winghaving a Wing tlap at the trailing edge and a nose vane located in theproximity of the entering edge, and common means for extending the nosevane and lowering the wing flap together on v only one side at a time,and independent means to extend the nose vanes'on both sides together.

In testimony whereof I hereto aflix my signature.

VIRGINIUS E. CLARK.

